Lost Kingdom
27. Democracy is a foul word in this kingdom
In September 2001, New Zealand’s High Commissioner to the Kingdom, Brian Smythe, was shuffled over to Vanuatu.
As was custom Smythe wrote a report for the New Zealand Foreign MInister, then Phil Goff, summing up the state of Tonga. As these things are never willingly released, the departing diplomat gets to take a real swing at the place that had just been his home. Three years later Smythe’s missive made it into the New Zealand media. Diplomats like to see themselves at times as reporters, serving a small readership.
‘The official slogan here is "Tonga: the land where time begins”,’ Smythe wrote. ‘It might better read "the land where time stands still."
‘There is enormous resistance to change, and when reform is finally embarked upon, the pace is often such as to be virtually imperceptible. The speed at which they drive here says it all - 20 to 30 km per hour! There is no sense of urgency. Over the past 12 months, despite talk of the need for reform of the public sector and the economy, little of substance has been done. Many ministers seem blithely unaware of the economic imperatives. On the political front, as ever, the situation remains frozen pending the passing away of the King. He seems as healthy as ever.’
In fact Taufa’ahau had precisely five years left on his clock as Smythe wrote.
